DENVER -- Prior to Friday night’s dramatic 9-7 win in 10 innings over the Rockies at Coors Field, Brewers manager Pat Murphy said that one of the conversations he regularly has with his players and staff involves the “full catastrophe” that is seemingly always either lurking or present during any given baseball season.
He used the term after Milwaukee’s loss to the Giants at American Family Field on Thursday afternoon, as relievers DL Hall -- who was placed on the 15-day injured list on Friday with a left pectoral strain -- and Grant Anderson had to exit the contest due to injuries, further decimating an already thin pitching staff.
Things appeared to get even worse in Friday’s game when left-handed reliever Brian Fitzpatrick, whom the club recalled from Triple-A Nashville along with Craig Yoho earlier in the day to fortify the ailing bullpen, left with an elbow injury while warming up for the bottom of the seventh inning.
Then, trailing by two runs and down to their final three outs, the Brewers rallied for a four-run ninth inning and scored four more in the 10th to stun the Rockies. Prior to the 11th-hour eruption, Milwaukee had just one hit in the game against Colorado starter Ryan Feltner and relievers Jaden Hill and Antonio Senzatela.
Murphy spoke pregame about the need for his club to be resilient in the face of mounting adversity.
“Just plan on building your resiliency, building your response,” Murphy said. “… Everybody’s going to have [adversity]. It’s who responds the quickest. We all get punched in the face. Do we kneel down and go, ‘Oh, wait, look at my face,’ or do we respond right away?”
On Friday, with things looking grim, especially with another pitching injury, Milwaukee’s response was resounding.
Brice Turang opened the ninth with a single to left field. William Contreras followed with a ground ball back to Senzatela, but Senzatela threw the ball into center field in an attempt to start a double play.
With runners at the corners, Jake Bauers then singled to center to cut the deficit to 3-2. After Garrett Mitchell struck out, Sal Frelick delivered an RBI double to tie the game. Pinch-hitter Andrew Vaughn followed with a go-ahead two-run single.
Reliever Trevor Megill was unable to hold the lead in the bottom of the ninth, but Milwaukee was indefatigable. In the 10th, Bauers delivered a two-run double, which was followed by back-to-back RBI singles from Mitchell and Frelick to pad the lead.
Bauers emphasized a tight bond in the clubhouse as motivation in a win like Friday’s.
“Every win’s a good win,” he said. “But at the end of the day, these guys are our teammates, our brothers. We care about them. We love them. … You don’t want to see injuries like [Fitzpatrick’s] happen. It’s tough.
“Fitz is just getting his big league career started. He’s been throwing well for us whenever he gets the opportunity. To see him go down like that just breaks your heart.”
Murphy said after the game that the club is “wishing for the best” on Fitzpatrick’s arm, but “it doesn’t look good.”
“We keep having guys go down and keep digging deeper and deeper in the well,” Murphy said. “But that’s what we have to do. That’s part of it.”
The Brewers have been dealing with injury issues this season, but that isn’t unusual. The same could be said of their 2025 campaign, which they finished with the best record in the Majors.
As the broader baseball world continues to try to pinpoint what it is about this Milwaukee team that leads to such success in spite of daunting challenges, perhaps an element of it was seen in microcosmic form on Friday.
Prior to the game, the ever even-keeled Murphy was talking about the “full catastrophe” in a tone that he could just as easily have used for a discussion about something entirely innocuous. But after his club pulled out perhaps the grittiest win of the season in the wildest game of the season, his tone was about the same.
He was speaking about a rollercoaster, heart-pounding victory as if it was your average 5-3 win in nine innings.
That approach might be a key to how Milwaukee has survived injury epidemics before -- as well as to how the club can survive what will be a trying period ahead.
“I don’t get that stressed, to be honest with you,” Murphy said. “I understand the reality of Major League Baseball and how tough it is to win a Major League game.”